Abstract:Women Empowerment has been addressed in Various national and international communities and took various efforts to empower them so as to enhance their social and health status and involve them in development activities. In India national family health survey 1998-1999, provides an opportunity to study women’s empowerment. Women empowerment in political, economic, social, cultural and business activities plays a significant role in today’s life. There are significant divergences in the women’s empowerment across different states and socio economic and cultural settings with in India. Women’s educational levels emerged as an important predictor for all the dimensions of women empowerment. Additionally government self employment training schemes and media exposure have emerged as the important tools for women’s empowerment.

Introduction:The couple of word “Women-Empowerment” may be defined as a multidimensional social process that helps women in gaining control over their own lives. It fosters capacity in them, for use in their own lives, their community, and in their society by acting on issues that they define as important. It is multidimensional in the sense that it occurs within sociological, psychological, economic and other dimensions. It also occurs at various levels such as individual, group, and community. It is a social process in the sense that it occurs in relationships to others. In many societies of underdeveloped or undeveloped countries women have direct links with the local environment. They work in fields and run household affairs. They can be seen collecting firewood and forest- food products etc. and carrying drinking water from far off places. Since women depend on natural resources for their survival, they gain through experience, sufficient knowledge about the protection and management of those resources. In spite of all the work and sacrifice they do for the sake of their families and the local environment, women are most neglected and unprivileged in many societies of the world. They have not been given right to speak or take a decision in important matter pertaining to families, societies and environment.

Types of Empowerment:
Economic empowerment:Economic empowerment is thought to allow women to think beyond immediate daily survival and to exercise greater control over both their resources and life choices. For example, it enables households to make their own decisions around making investments in health and education, and taking risks in order to increase their income. There is also some evidence that economic empowerment can strengthen vulnerable groups’ participation in the decision-making. For example, microfinance programs have been shown to bolster women’s influence within the household and marketplace. The evidence also suggests that economic power is often easily ‘converted’ into increased social status or decision-making power.

The literature on economic empowerment is vast, and a large part of this focuses on the economic empowerment of women - a key strategy in addressing gender inequality. More generally, the discourse on economic empowerment centers around four broad areas: a) the promotion of the assets of poor people; b) transformative forms of social protection; c) microfinance; and d) skills training. Social Empowerment:

Social empowerment is understood as the process of developing a sense of autonomy and self-confidence, and acting individually and collectively to change social relationships and the institutions and discourses that exclude poor people and keep them in poverty. Poor people’s empowerment, and their ability to hold others to account, is strongly influenced by their individual assets such as land, housing, livestock, savings and capabilities of all types: human (such as good health and education), social (such as social belonging, a sense of identity, leadership...

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...Research Proposal on Education, WomenEmpowerment and Contempary Challenges
Research problem
Empowerment consists of four dimensions, each equally important but none sufficient by itself to enable women to act on their own behalf. These are the cognitive or critical understanding of one's reality, the psychological or feeling of self-esteem, the political or awareness of power inequalities and the ability to organize and mobilize and the economic or the capacity to generate independent income (Datta &amp; Kornberg 2002). Educational settings have the potential to foster all four dimensions but require the educational program to be designed explicitly to achieve each of those ends. While the interlocking nature of these dimensions can contribute to making empowerment irreversible, the path to the development of an empowered woman is not easy. It necessitates persistent interventions in order to break old patterns of low self-worth and dependence, and to foster the construction of new personalities with a realistic understanding of how gender functions in their society. Girls' access to schooling in many developing countries is so low that the term empowerment has been used to mean mere participation in the formal system. This is problematic because it assumes that the experience and knowledge attained in schooling automatically prepare girls to assess their worth and envisage new...

...EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN IN INDIA
“Authentic empowerment is the knowing that you are on purpose, doing God's work, peacefully and harmoniously.”-Wayne Dyer, American motivational speaker.
According to McLeod, the concept ‘Empowerment’ derives from Latin word 'potere' which means "to be able”. From the view of sociological aspect, empowerment is a multi-dimensional, multi-tiered and multifaceted concept. The term empowerment has different meanings in different socio-cultural and political contexts. World Bank Report 2000/2001 describes empowerment as a process of increasing the capacity of individuals or groups to make choices and to transform those choices into desired actions and outcomes. According to country report of Government of India, “Empowerment means moving from a position of enforced powerlessness to one of power”
India, which is a conglomerate of diverse ethnic, linguistic and geographical features, today is at the cusp of a paradigm change in its growth and its position in the world. However, India is even known for its sobriquet 'male-chauvinistic nation'. Indian myths describe our country as ‘Mother India’ who is a woman that serves as the mother of every Indian. While such a woman looks after every Indian child, women in general are simply being disregarded at the...

...WHAT IS WOMENEMPOWERMENT?
In the simplest of words it is basically the creation of an environment where women can make independent decisions on their personal development as well as shine as equals in society.
Women want to be treated as equals so much so that if a woman rises to the top of her field it should be a commonplace occurrence that draws nothing more than a raised eyebrow at the gender. This can only happen if there is a channelized route for the empowerment of women.
Thus it is no real surprise that womenempowerment in India is a hotly discussed topic with no real solution looming in the horizon except to doubly redouble our efforts and continue to target the sources of all the violence and ill-will towards women.
CHALLENGES
There are several challenges that are currently plaguing the issues of women’s rights in India. A few of these challenges are presented below. While a lot of these are redundant and quite basic issues faced across the country, these are contributory causes to the overarching status of women in India. Targeting these issues will directly benefit the empowerment of women in India.
EDUCATION
While the country has grown from leaps and bounds since its independence where education is concerned, the gap between...

...http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1320071
WOMENEMPOWERMENT IN INDIA Purusottam Nayak and Bidisha Mahanta Email: nehu_pnayak@yahoo.co.in Web Address: www.pnayak.webs.com/
Abstract The present paper is an attempt to analyze the status of womenempowerment in India using various indicators like women’s household decision making power, financial autonomy, freedom of movement, political participation, acceptance of unequal gender role, exposure to media, access to education, experience of domestic violence etc based on data from different sources. The study reveals that women of India are relatively disempowered and they enjoy somewhat lower status than that of men in spite of many efforts undertaken by government. Gender gap exists regarding access to education and employment. Household decision making power and freedom of movement of women vary considerably with their age, education and employment status. It is found that acceptance of unequal gender norms by women are still prevailing in the society. More than half of the women believe wife beating to be justified for one reason or the other. Fewer women have final say on how to spend their earnings. Control over cash earnings increases with age, education and with place of residence. Women’s exposure to media is also less relative to...

...WomenEmpowerment - A reality or Myth
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The latest news items regarding violence committed against women reveal that women's position has worsened. Tulsidas' verse from Ramayana 'Dhol, janwar, shudra, pashu, nari ye sub nindan ke adhikari' highlights the discrimination and deep-rooted gender bias which still exists in all sectors on the basis of caste, community, religious affiliation and class. The Constitution of India grants equality to women in various...

...ESSSAY
"When women are the advisor, the Lords of creation don't take the advice till they have persuaded themselves that it is just what they intended to do; then they act upon it and if it succeeds, they give the weaker vessel half the credit of it; if fails, they generously give herself the whole".- Louisa May Alcott
Gender equality is, first and foremost, a human right. A woman is entitled to live in dignity and in freedom from want and from fear. Empowering women is also an indispensable tool foradvancing development and reducing poverty. Empowered women contribute to the health and productivity of whole families and communities and to improved prospects for the next generation.
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...Empowering Women
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The ability of women to control their own fertility is absolutely fundamental to women’s empowerment and equality. When a woman can plan her family, she can plan the rest of her life. When she is healthy, she can be more productive. And when her reproductive rights—including the right to decide the number, timing and spacing of her children, and to make decisions regarding reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence—are promoted and protected, she has freedom to participate more fully and equally in society.
Understanding gender equality and women's empowerment
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...off was the outpour of men and women (young and old) on the streets to draw attention of the law enforcing agencies and the government machinery that such incidents will not be tolerated and rapists be accorded death penalty due to the gravity of the crime. Accordingly revision in the anti-rape bill is in the offing, with stricter punishment for the rapists, including capital punishment. This means when we are together, we can achieve greater things, including respect andempowerment of women. Had it been only women groups protesting on the streets after Nirbhaya rape incident, the impact would not have been so profound. Since the whole society, including men protested for strict action against rapists, the latter were nabbed in no time, and now there is recommendation for fast-track court for speedy justice for Nirbhaya.
Empowering women is very important for the societal development and hence is regarded as key to achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. As is rightly said, an empowered woman contributes to the productivity of her whole family, both economic and social. Research has shown that gender inequality in the sectors of reproductive health, womenempowerment and labour market participation, impairs a country’s development as also its human development. The United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) Human Development Report for the year 2013 informs...